They'll always be a part of me

22/02/2010

Jose Mourinho has said that he is neither nervous nor excited for his Inter side’s upcoming clash with his former club Chelsea in the Champions League this week, and underlined the affection he still has for the west London club. Mourinho left Stamford Bridge under a cloud in September 2007 after a bad start to that season - but there is no bad feeling from him. Nor does he say that he wants to badly beat his rival Carlo Ancelotti, who is in charge of what he says is his team.

‘(I am) not nervous, not excited, I promise you,’ he said to The Guardian. ‘I have to look at this game with the emotion of any Champions League game, without any extra adrenaline, motivation or extra pressure. It's the same for me if I knock Real Madrid out or Bayern Munich. And it's the same for them if they knock out Arsenal or Porto. I think there would be no special pleasure from that. If a Chelsea player is happier to beat me than to beat another manager, I will be very sad because I don't understand that. If I am happier to beat them than to beat another team I think they have a reason to be very unhappy. The only thing in the game is that we're all professionals and we want to win. I want to, they want to win, somebody will win, somebody will lose.

‘Chelsea are a team with no secrets for me, so it’s not been hard to prepare for. I’m normally meticulous in my preparations, but nothing has changed since I left the club. They prepare for games the same way they did under me and they employ the same formations so there’s not too much for me to prepare for.

‘I am part of Chelsea’s history and they’re part of mine. People questioned who I was when I went to the club, but their attitude changed towards me when I said I would deliver trophies and made good on my promises. Chelsea will always be ¬special for me.’